10 Most Haunted Places in Mexico

Have you visited any of these places?

The world is littered with haunted places. We’ve all heard the stories about the Tower of London or the town of Salem, but it’s rarer to hear about haunted places in Mexico. This list of paranormal sites is sure to introduce you to a few terrifying tales you haven’t heard before.

Also known as La Zona del Silencio and the Sea of Thetys, the Mapimi Silent Zone is a stretch of desert in Durango, Mexico with an enigmatic reputation. Similar to the Bermuda Triangle, the Silent Zone is known for strange phenomena including radio malfunctions, mutated wildlife, meteor impacts and reports of extraterrestrial activity. The alien visitors are described as tall and blonde-haired; when encountered, they supposedly ask for water in flawless Spanish then disappear without a trace. The Silent Zone is also a hotbed of UFO activity, with reports of flying figures, fireballs and spheres of glowing light.

The Zone earned its name in the 1960s when oil company Pemex funded a scouting expedition. The oil company’s team experienced constant radio problems and equipment malfunctions, leading them to dub the area “The Zone of Silence”. It remained a curiosity until January 1970, when a United States rocket crashed in the zone and famed rocket scientist Wernher Von Braun led the extensive recovery efforts. This incident stoked interest in the Mapimi Silent Zone and led the Mexican government to establish the Mapimi Biosphere Reserve around it.

Subway systems always seem to attract ghost stories. Maybe it’s the dark tunnels or the crowds; maybe it’s the reputation as a common place for suicides. Whatever the reasons, Mexico City’s metro system is no exception to this rule. First opened to the public in 1969, the metro is host to a wide range of ghost stories and paranormal activity ranging from ancient Aztec ghosts to murdered commuters and ghost trains.

Pino Suàrez station is known for the ghost of Victor Platonoff, a metro employee who died in 1989, as well as an “ancient Aztec” man who weeps about the Spanish Conquest. Visitors to Panteones Station, a subway stop constructed near two graveyards, may experience mysterious knocks on the tunnel walls or see ephemeral shapes that disappear when they come close. A ghost train runs from Allende to Zócalo station through Viaducto station, the site of a horrific 1975 crash that killed at least 31 passengers.

Opened in Mexico City in 1847, Hospital Juarez is an active medical center known for sightings of La Planchada (“the ironed lady”), a ghostly nurse from the mid-1900s who appears in a perfectly pressed nurse’s uniform. Descriptions of the nurse vary; some report seeing a glowing and floating figure while others describe a normal-looking nurse. In all cases she is known for treating patients in the hospital’s emergency section and bringing about miraculous recoveries.

Much like her appearance, the legend surrounding La Planchada’s origin changes with the storyteller. Some say she was a nurse in love with a doctor who rejected her and drove her to suicide; others claim she euthanized patients in order to relieve their pain. Whatever her origins, La Planchada is known as a benevolent spirit and there isn’t a patient in Hospital Juarez who wouldn’t be happy to see her.

The House of Laments was the home of Tadeo Mejía, a serial killer who committed a series of grisly murders in an attempt to contact his deceased wife. In the late 1800s, Mejía’s wife Costanza was murdered during a home invasion. Some sources claim the murderers were miners who worked under Mejía and believed he was embezzling from their salaries. Distraught after his wife’s death, Mejía consulted a witch who instructed him in occult rituals that would allow him to contact his wife but would require human sacrifices. Mejía would eventually kill himself and, although Satanic imagery and skeletons were found in his basement, to this day it is unknown exactly how many murders he committed.

Today the House of Laments operates as a museum dedicated to Mejía’s blood-soaked story. It features imagery of Mejía and his wife as well as artifacts related to the couple and Mejía’s killing spree. Visitors report mysterious sounds and wails as well as apparitions wandering the grounds.

More than 50 years ago, Don Julián Santana Barrera left his wife and child and relocated to the solitude of a chinampa (floating garden) in the canals of Xochimilco, Mexico City.

Barrera was known as a loner, so this floating island an hour from the nearest pier must have been paradise for him. Shortly after taking residence on the island Barrera found the corpse of a little girl who drowned in the canal along with a child’s doll. He hung the doll from a tree nearby as a memorial for the girl, but began to be haunted by whispers, wails and footsteps in the night (despite the fact that he was the only one on the isolated island). He believed these haunting phenomena to be the work of the drowned girl’s spirit; in an effort to appease her, he began hanging dolls all around the chinampa. He would continue hanging these dolls for over 50 years until he died in 2001. He drowned, reportedly in the same spot he found the little girl.